(Newser)
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The media were quick to jump all over the "disgraced" Miss Delaware Teen USA's alleged turn in a porn video. But everyone missed the larger point: Melissa King was just 18 when she supposedly filmed it, writes Charles Lane in the Washington Post. "Why is it even legal to cast an 18-year-old in a sexually explicit movie?" he wonders. Eighteen might be the age at which you can vote, but certainly "having sex with a stranger for money and on camera belongs on the short list of risky behaviors that one can’t legally engage in before age 21," like drinking, gambling, working as a stripper, or buying a gun.

Congress set the minimum age to participate in porn at 18 in 1984, back when it took a lot more time, effort, and money to make a porn film. These days, anyone can film a sex act on a cellphone camera and distribute it on social media. "Mistakes like King’s are much easier to make but much harder to erase," Lane writes. It's time for Congress to recognize "the immaturity and vulnerability of some 18- to 21-year-olds" by changing the porn age. Click for Lane's full column. (Read more pornography stories.)